The Freedom Caucus fully understood that its last-minute demands would doom the bill. The vote was going to fail.This is a common tactic by the group. Over the years, the caucus has repeatedly demanded more while refusing to compromise.

Good morning. It is 36 degrees and rainy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a rainy day with temperatures in the high 30s this afternoon. We have a light dusting of snow from overnight and it looks like it's going to be a wet weekend maybe even mixed with snow. The longer range forecast show temperatures in the 50s and also a lot of rain over the next week.

At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -15 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open slightly lower.

As we know, the news is very fluid and dynamic. Flynn is seeking immunity which in most people's minds means that he is concerned about prosecution. Flynn of course comes across as one of the rather larger and more despicable hypocrites to emerge lately. It is clearer and clearer that the president is up to his eyeballs in scandal involving his connections with Russia and how Russia influenced our recent election. The finger is pointing closer and closer to the unbearable reality that Trump and company were working in collusion with the Russians. Trump truly might not be a legitimate president in fact he might very well be a traitor. The country is slowly waking up to the fact that we are in a state of crisis, this is very serious.

summary - Blind tadpoles were able to process visual information from eyes grafted onto their tails after being treated with a small molecule neurotransmitter drug that augmented innervation, integration, and function of the transplanted organs. The work, which used a pharmacological reagent already approved for use in humans, provides a potential road map for promoting innervation -- the supply of nerves to a body part -- in regenerative medicine.

But the decision to drop the human rights assurances as a condition of the sale is bound to be read by Saudi Arabia and other states in the region as a sign that the new administration plans to ease its demands to protect and respect political dissidents and protesters.

Good morning. It is 37 degrees and mostly sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts maybe rain later and temperatures around 50 degrees this afternoon. The snow covering has really retreated, all that is left are the high banks from the plows. I have to admit, I'm ready for Spring even though it's mostly been a mild Winter all in all.

At 9:15 a.m. ET Dow futures are -13 and the price of oil per barrel is up, closing in on $50 perl. The market is poised to open modestly lower.

How about that Trump hiring his daughter to run the family's dog and pony show right out of the White House. And she's so amazingly qualified. The White House is now a mom and pop one stop shop. She can market handbags and Trump products while Donald opens up global markets for his junk with diplomatic methods. What a heaping pile of shit.

summary - While it has long been known that maltreatment can affect a child's psychological development, new research indicates that the stress of abuse can impact the physical growth and maturation of adolescents as well.

After an initial elimination round, the remaining contestants will submit more detailed technical proposals. Another round of cuts will ensue, and then a group of finalists will convene in San Diego, California, to construct both a 30ft-long prototype of their design and a 10ft by 10ft “mock-up” that will be used by the government to “test and evaluate the anti-destruct characteristics” of the design.Think of it as a swimsuit competition followed by a high-stakes Apprentice challenge.

Only 10 weeks into his presidency, and at great risk to future generations, Donald Trump has ordered the demolition of most of President Barack Obama’s policies to combat climate change by reducing emissions from fossil fuels.

Good morning. It is 39 degrees and rainy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts that we might see some sunshine this afternoon with temperatures in the 50s. A lot of the snow covering dissolved overnight, and just two weeks ago we were all digging out from the blizzard. Some of the piled up snow banks will stick around for a while longer, the piles are very high in parking lots and such. March is moving fast.

At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -6 and the price of oil per barrel is slightly higher. The market is poised to open in the flat area.

Trump's removal of environmental regulations which will result in more global warming, are particularly obnoxious and repugnant. Here we have a man who believes he is more qualified, intelligent, and knowledgeable than the globe's scientists. Here we have a president who gets his information from conspiracy websites, fake news ultra right wing b.s., and supermarket tabloids. This is a disaster, Trump is a disaster. The world will suffer because of Donald Trump. Let that sink in.

By 2005, more than four hundred children, most between the ages of eight and fifteen, had fallen into the condition. In the medical journal Acta Pædiatrica, Bodegård described the typical patient as “totally passive, immobile, lacks tonus, withdrawn, mute, unable to eat and drink, incontinent and not reacting to physical stimuli or pain.”

summary - Experiments suggest the particles that cover the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, are 'electrically charged.' When the wind blows hard enough, Titan's non-silicate granules get kicked up and start to hop in a motion. As they collide, they become frictionally charged, like a balloon rubbing against your hair, and clump together in a way not observed for sand dune grains on Earth -- they become resistant to further motion.

Since January, the surge has transformed into a slow, incessant march of deleting datasets, webpages and policies about the Arctic. I now come to expect a weekly email request to replace invalid citations, hoping that someone had the foresight to download statistics about Arctic permafrost thaw or renewable energy in advance of the purge.

Mr. Trump criticized the Clean Power Plan during the campaign and promised to bring back coal mining jobs and create new jobs in the fossil fuel industry; the rules would have made that more difficult. Mr. Pruitt, as Oklahoma’s attorney general, sued the E.P.A. 14 times over environmental regulations, including the Clean Power Plan.

Good morning. It is 43 degrees and overcast here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a rainy day with temperatures in the mid 50s this afternoon. As it was foggy and above freezing over night, a lot of the snow ground cover is now gone. I'd say in my neighborhood, that about 40% of the ground is covered with a thin layer of snow and by day's end a good portion of that will be gone too. The ground itself is very wet and mushy, we can walk on it but only with protective boots on unless you like getting your feet wet. Exactly two weeks ago at this time we were in the middle of an extreme blizzard.

At 9:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are -27 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open modestly lower.The 'Trump rally' is falling off the rails at this moment. That will change of course.

People are calling for Nunes to recuse himself from the House Intelligence Committee. Duh, of course, Nunes must go. I mean it's pretty simple, his actions in spilling information to the White House reeks of a cover up. This Trump-Russia gate episode must be fully investigated, we must know if there really is treasonous behavior at the center of it all. This is America for cripes sake, we don't live in Russia, we're not Russians, this country is built on being a free and open society, not some two bit third world dictatorship with a strong man tough talking shoots his enemies billionaire in charge - hmm. Anyhow, write your representatives, let them know what you think. It's important for you to do this, exercise your freaking rights for cripes sakes.

Amazon announced this morning it's acquiring Souq, the Arab world's biggest online retailer.For many in the Middle East, Souq.com is the online shopping platform. The company was recently valued above $1 billion, according to CB Insights

On July 1, 1917, a rumor spread claiming that a white man had been killed by a black man, and tensions boiled over. The next day, the city of East St. Louis exploded in the worst racial rioting the country had ever seen. Most of the violence -- drive-by shootings, beatings, and arson -- targeted the African American community. The riots raged for nearly a week, leaving nine whites and hundreds of African Americans dead, and property damage estimated at close to $400,000. More than six thousand black citizens, fearing for their lives, fled the city.The carnage was all the more shocking because it occurred only shortly after American's entry into World War I. According to historian Winston James, "You have black troops going off to fight to make the world safe for democracy in April and in July you have black people being murdered in the most wanton and barbaric manner in East St. Louis; children being thrown back into flaming houses, people being boarded up in their houses before they're torched so that they couldn't escape. So even by American standards, East St. Louis was a horror."

There are people who hold a certain set of beliefs, and may alter their arguments when faced with evidence that dispels their beliefs. And then there are people who will ignore facts if it gets in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

summary - Unprecedented summer warmth and flooding, forest fires, drought and torrential rain -- extreme weather events are occurring more and more often, but now an international team of climate scientists has found a connection between many extreme weather events and the impact climate change is having on the jet stream.

“I still believe that there is a good chance, if moderates and conservatives can come together, that we repeal and replace Obamacare, bring premiums down, cover more people.” (said the leader of the Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows of North Carolina)

America’s biggest coal boss is hopeful that his industry will soon be freed of “fraudulent” green legislation that has hampered his industry, but warned Donald Trump to “temper” expectations about a boom in mining jobs.

They have to have a victory here,” said Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist who advised Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign. “But it is going to have to be a bit less ambitious rather than going for the big bang.”

These people weren’t elected to govern, but to impede governance. Their mandate isn’t to generate ideas and solve problems by the effective exercise of government. Their singular crusade is that government is ineffective and the solution is to forever see government itself as the problem. Ideas for them are anathema.

Good morning. It is 37 degrees and rainy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts rain and temperatures in the high 40s this afternoon. The week's forecast shows a stream of days with temperatures mostly in the 50s. Exactly two weeks ago we were preparing for a huge snow blizzard. Today that snow is really retreating and in my neighborhood the snow on the ground is like cheese on a pizza, spotty but present. However it does really still seem like Winter out there.

At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -159 and the price of oil per barrel is stable around $48. The market is poised to open significantly lower.

The Trump administration came up with a huge goose egg with it's highly flawed roll out and non-vote mess with the American Health Care Act. This alleged health care act was more like a sickness, illness, and death booster. not a whole lot of health in there. This thing was garbage. Here's the problem, the GOP only does two things: cuts taxes for the rich, and then destroy valuable institutions of all sorts be they governmental or cultural or both. The GOP is the ISIS of America, these guys want to cut out from America pretty much anything the doesn't spell we love tax free rich white guys and born again Southern Christianity. This is not conservatism, this is regression. I mean at this rate, they may want to destroy the Constitution and join back up with England.

"The healthcare bill, although it ultimately won't have a big impact on the economy, was a major litmus test for the president, who has an aggressive policy agenda."Brooks said a major underlying concern is that Trump won't be able to spend as much as he promised on things like infrastructure, which would support the economy and jobs.

summary - More Americans than ever are turning to spiritual, meditative and religious retreats as a way to reset their daily life and enhance well-being. Now, researchers show there are changes in the dopamine and serotonin systems in the brains of retreat participants.

When mice were treated with a substance designed to sweep away cells that have entered a dormant state due to DNA damage their fur regrew, kidney function improved and they were able to run twice as far as untreated elderly animals.

Good morning. It is 37 degrees with a cloudy grey sky here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a rainy day with temperatures in the 40s this afternoon. The long range forecast has the temperature remaining in the 40s and 50s during the day through the next full week. Spring is ready to touch down.

At 9:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are +46 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.

The unmitigated disaster that is presently occupying the White Hose and Congress is planning to vote on a massive tax break for the rich that coincidentally has attached to it, a hideous health care plan for Americans. The health care plan will save Americans money because no one will be able to afford the deductibles and therefore we will all forego health care. Smart thinking there GOP, way to do it. Do us proud oh creators and lovers of human misery. Trump is probably the most detested man in the world, Ryan is doing his damnedest to catch up in that shoe shit contest.

OMG - this article is a riot - "Watching TV commentators applaud him for containing himself for a little over an hour (SOTU) was like hearing a parent praise a difficult child for not pooping in his pants during a pre-school interview."

I wrote this. Please feel free to copy and paste it. Below are the links which will take you directly to the New York Senators' email

Dear Senator

Given that President Donald Trump is under a criminal investigation which has ‘the smell of treason’ to it, it is imperative that you do not confirm his choice of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. Do not confirm this pick. I am dismayed that President Obama’s choice for the open seat, Merrick Garland, was not even given a fair hearing by the Republican controlled Senate, and for the flimsiest of excuses. Therefore, given that we have a President who has a criminal investigation hanging over him and by extension the country, this is most certainly not a flimsy excuse, you must not confirm his selection.

summary - The Arctic sea ice maximum extent and Antarctic minimum extent are both record lows this year. Combined, sea ice numbers are at their lowest point since satellites began to continuously measure sea ice in 1979.

Wilbur Ross, the Trump administration’s new commerce secretary, presided over a deal with a Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin while serving in his previous role as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus.

Good morning. It is 21 degrees and sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a very sunny day with temperatures in the high 30s this afternoon. We are entering into a warming trend over the next week, maybe Spring will take hold for good.

At 9:15 a.m ET DOW futures are -19 and the price of oil per barrel is down, now trading around $48. The market is poised to open modestly lower.

Looking around the headlines this morning, I suspect the media is working to prime the American population on the Trump-Russia-treason activity-gate, primed for the worst that is. Most of us on the left have been aware of this deep suspicion for some time now. There's a lot of smoke and Trump is holding the matches. This could get very very ugly before there is some resolution, hang onto your hats. Meanwhile, the GOP Congress is set to remove Obamacare and replace it with Trumpcare. All reports indicate that the new health care bill is an utter f**king disaster which will brutally hurt the population. So hold onto your hats there as well.

But two months into Trump’s presidency, those whispers – and the search for any other possible emergency exit – have grown into an open conversation that has moved well beyond the realm of a Democratic party daydream. “Get ready for impeachment,” an influential, 13-term Democratic congresswoman tweeted after the bombshell FBI announcement.

Of acute concern to Republicans are a handful of low-profile programs aimed at job training and economic revitalization, including regional development agencies like the Appalachian commission and the Delta Regional Authority, which serves eight Southern and Midwestern states, seven of them with Republican governors.

Good morning. It is 23 degrees and partly cloudy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a lot of clouds and temperatures around 26 degrees this afternoon. It's going to be a cold one. 'The smell of treason is in the air', it is indeed. Turns out the lock her up chant is really more Trump projecting his own guilt. Trump and all the GOP candidates made a lot of hay and garnered a lot of affection from the rabid right base my lying and saying Clinton was under criminal investigation. Well turns out that Trump is under criminal investigation. Why does this country endlessly cut off its nose to spite it's face? The answer is, overwhelming ignorance, fear, hatred, jealous, arrogance, and greed. Nothing has changed, these negative mental states simply come through in different forms and disguises throughout human history.

At 9:15 a.m. ET the DOW is -41 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open moderately lower.

It appears to be getting a clearer to a more general portion of the population that our new president is an inveterate liar. This is a CNN headline for this morning - "The candidate who wore out the phrase 'believe me' is the President who's becoming harder to believe".
He's a few other things too, a con man, someone who will say anything without a blink of the eye. Most of us saw this a mile away, we knew it was trouble too. Well, the shit is hitting the fan, and you know what, it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

"There is no obvious explanation for the poor performance but markets might be starting to question President Trump's ability to deliver on his policy promises," said Andreas Johnson, an economist at Swedish bank SEB.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The president might be wise to negotiate a resignation before he’s fatally wounded. Comey and Rogers slashed him so badly on Monday, with their emphatic eviscerations of his infamous tweets claiming President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower, that his credibility on any issue, outside his adoring legions of cult-like fans, has been nearly destroyed. At some point, the Republicans may see their own salvation lies in deserting him for Vice President Mike Pence.

“There’s a smell of treason in the air,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said. “Imagine if J. Edgar Hoover or any other FBI director would have testified against a sitting president? It would have been a mind-
boggling event.”

Good morning. It is 39 degrees and cloudy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a cloudy day with temperatures in the low 50s this afternoon. Wednesday is going to be cold, very cold. As it was above freezing over night, we woke up to a thinner layer of snow on the ground. Bare patches of the ground are already appearing in my neighborhood and this is one week after our worst blizzard in a long time. The snow is melting, Spring is trying to take hold but in truth we've had snow around here in April and one year way back when in May too. Let's see what kind of reactions the world is having to the hearings.

At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are +20 and the price of oil is up. The market is poised to open relatively higher.

As far as I'm concerned it's all about the White House until this Trump-Russia-gate is resolved one way or another. CNN headlines this morning exclaimed -'Grey Clouds Over The White House'. Aint that the truth. These guys did it, they worked in concert with Russia to help sway the election to Trump. I'm positive at this point, this is my gut talking. There's too much in play, too many people involved with links all over the place, Trump is dirty. Will he relinquish his power easily? Nope, he's going to drag everything in sight including the country down, because Donald is a megalomaniac, and that is probably one of his more gentle qualities.

Monday, March 20, 2017

This was absolutely one of the most ridiculous moments of today's hearing. Trump tweets out b.s. while the hearing is in progress. Rep. Jim Hines catches the tweet, then asks Comey if it's b.s. Comey, reluctantly said it was b.s. Trump is like the impetuous 2 year old, throwing another tantrum, maybe he missed his nappy...

(Comey said,) "As you know our practice is not to confirm existence of ongoing investigations especially those investigations that involve classified matters. But in unusual circumstances where it is in the public interest, it may be appropriate to do so. As Justice Department policies recognize, this is one of those circumstances. I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed."

summary - More than 50 million years ago, when the Earth experienced a series of extreme global warming events, early mammals responded by shrinking in size. While this mammalian dwarfism has previously been linked to the largest of these events, new research has found that this evolutionary process can happen in smaller, so-called hyperthermals, indicating an important pattern that could help shape an understanding of underlying effects of current human-caused climate change.

These flooding events have increased seven-fold in Atlantic City since the 1950s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and are spurred by rainfall or simply a spring tide abetted by unhelpful gusts of wind.

Good morning. It is 30 degrees and presently sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a partly cloudy day with temperatures in the high 40s this afternoon. Ever so slowly the 2 feet or so of snow we got from last Tuesday's blizzard is ever so slowly starting to recede. Well, well, today is the first day of Spring, fantastic! Over the next six months we are into the warm weather and the return of daylight. It still looks like Winter around here, but Spring is coming.

At 9:15 a.m ET the DOW is -12 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open somewhat lower.

It's simple, the eyes of the world will be watching Comey testify this morning at 10 a.m. ET. What are we talking about here? Essentially we might be witnesses to the most heinous act of treason perpetrated on this country ever. The suspicion and smoke is there.

Soon after Charla McComic’s son lost his job, his health-insurance premium dropped from $567 per month to just $88, a “blessing from God” that she believes was made possible by President Trump.The price change was actually thanks to a subsidy made possible by former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which is still in place, not by the tax credits proposed by Republicans as part of the health-care bill still being considered by Congress.

“Who in the hell zeroes out Meals on Wheels?” wrote Charles P. Pierce of Esquire. “Who decides that a program that spends $3 million to help volunteers feed the elderly and infirm in their communities is something that the country can no longer afford? Who are the men in the meetings who make this kind of call? What are their names? Trot them out so the country knows who they are. C’mon, David Brooks, find out who they are and explain why National Greatness Conservatism has a problem with starving elderly shut-ins.”

...Trump’s plan calls for austerity that will fall squarely on the shoulders of the poor. Someone has to pay for all those F-35s, after all, and it won’t be Trump’s golfing buddies at Mar-a-Lago, who he’s promised tax cuts (“the biggest since Reagan, maybe bigger”). The cutbacks include those to the women, infants and children program, loans for small business owners, after-school programs and work-study aid for students, and job training programs for both low-income youth and senior citizens. And the proposed budget eliminates outright the Community Development Block Grant program, the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development Administration, programs which give grants and provide financial services to poor communities.